So far, we have spent a great deal of time on forms and
their design. This was because the users spend most of their time using
them. Then comes the time to print data. In
Lesson 3, we saw
that you could print from a table or a form. The best way to print is
through a report and we had a
simple introduction
in that same lesson. Like a form, a report should be meticulously designed.
Unlike forms, some details present a different concern on reports.

As mentioned in previous lessons, a report shares many
characteristics with a form. In the Navigation Pane, a report is
represented by a green icon
that you can use to open the report. Like a form, once opened, a report is
represented by a tab or a title bar (for an overlapped database) that
displays its name. By its definition, a report mimics a piece of paper and
therefore it uses a white background.

Like a form, a report can be displayed in different
views but the report has more varieties.

A Review of Report Creation

As we saw in Lesson 3, to quickly create a report, in
the Navigation Pane, click a table to select it. Then, on the Ribbon,
click Create and, in the Reports section, click Report. Another fast way
is by using the Report Wizard. To start it, in the Reports section of the
Create tab of the Ribbon, you can click the Report Wizard button. This
would launch a wizard that you can simply follow (we saw how to use the
Report Wizard in
Lesson 3).

When it comes to report design, the rules to add and
manipulate the controls are the same we reviewed for the form. We studied
the techniques of control design in the
Lessons 6 and
7. In
Lesson 12, we reviewed the
common characteristics of database fields. Everything in that lesson is
valid for controls positioned on a report. In
Lesson 16, we mentioned that,
for all of the expressions we learned to create, the techniques and rules
were valid for both the forms and the reports.

Practical
Learning: Creating a Report

Start Microsoft Access

Open the College Park Auto Repair1 database
you started in Lesson 15
and continued in Lesson
21

In the Navigation Pane, under Forms, double-click RepairOrders

Click the New Record button

Create the following record:

Close the RepairsOrders form

To start a new report, on the Ribbon, click Create

In the Reports section, click Blank Report

Right-click the tab or the title bar of the report and click Save

Set the name to RepairOrders and click OK

Field Insertion on Forms and Reports

Data on fields of forms and reports fall in three main
categories: fields that directly originate from a table (or a query),
fields created as a combination of existing fields, and fields independent
of any other fields. The techniques used to create these fields are
different but a field created using one technique can be changed into
another category as necessary.

If you want to use a field that is already part of a
table (or a query), before or when creating a report, you must specify the
list that holds the fields. There are various ways you can do this:

If you have already started a report and it is displaying in
Design View but you did not yet select the table that holds the list
of fields, in the Property Sheet for the report, you can click the
arrow of the Record Source field and select the table from the
list

If you want to use only a selected list of fields from a table,
start the report in Design View without selecting an object. Then, in
the Property Sheet, click the Record Source field and click its
ellipsis button. This will allow you to use the Query Builder to
create a query that is a list of the needed fields. After creating the
query, close it. Its Field List would display only the previously
selected fields

To add a field to a report, you can either click a
control from the Ribbon and click the report, or drag a field from the
Field List to the report.

The Views of a Report

The Design View

One of the ways you can display a report is called the
Design View. As seen in previous lessons, to display a report in Design
View

From the Navigation Pane, you can right-click the report and click
Design View

If the report is already opened, in the Views section of the
Ribbon, you can click the arrow button under View and click Design
View

If the report is already opened, you can right-click its tab or
its title bar and click Design View

As done for a form, in the Design View of a report,
you can add, position, format, configure, and manipulate the necessary
controls. The Design View is equipped with one or more sections. The
primary sections are the Page Header, the Detail, and the Page Footer:

As mentioned when studying form and report design,
when a report is in Design View, the Ribbon is equipped with a Controls
section in its Design tab. You can use those controls to populate your
report. You can also select objects from the Field List and add them to
the report.

The Print Preview

To have an idea of what a report would look like on a
printed piece of paper, you can display it in what is referred to as Print
Preview. To do this:

If you have created a report using the Report Wizard, it would
automatically display in Print Preview

In the Navigation Pane, you can right-click a report and click
Print Preview

If the report is already opened, you can right-click its tab or
its title bar and click Print Preview

When a report appears in Print Preview, the Ribbon is
made of only one tab.

To appear realistic, a report in print preview appears
as a piece of paper with margins. Its body is filled with the data that
would be printed. Here is an example:

The right side and the bottom-right side display a
scroll bar each. Like a form in Form View, the Print Preview of a report
may be equipped with navigation buttons. The functionality of these
navigation buttons is as we described for a table.

After using the Print Preview, to close it, in the
Close Preview section of the Ribbon, you can click the Close Print Preview
button
.
This would display the report in the view it previously had.

Practical
Learning: Using the Print Preview of a Report

Right-click the title bar of the report and click Print Preview

The Report View

The Report View shows a report with its controls and
the items in its sections but it does not show the margins:

Unlike the Print Preview, the Report View does not
distinguish where a section starts and where it ends.

The Layout View

The Layout View of a report appears as a drawing
board. It shows its title bar and its system buttons. In its body, it
displays three dotted lines that represent the top section and the
margins:

Like a Design View, you can use the Layout View to add
and manipulate controls on a report.

The Sections of a Report

The Page Header and the Page Footer Sections

When a piece of paper prints, it is made of a top
section, a body, and a bottom section. To support this, a report can be
equipped with a Page Header that represents the top part, a Detail section
that represents the body of the report, and a Page Footer section that
represents the bottom part.

If you create a report using either the Blank Report
or the Report Design options of the Reports section of the Ribbon, the
report would be equipped with a Page Header and a Page Footer sections:

If you have a report that doesn't have these sections
and you want to add them, right-click the report and click Page
Header/Footer

As mentioned previously, the Page Header represents
the top section of the printed paper. Therefore, when designing a report,
put in the Page Header the objects you want to display on each top part of
the printed paper. For example, you can put the common title or the page
number in that section. That section is also typically used to display the
title of a brochure or book.

Because the Page Footer represents the bottom part of
each printed page, you can put on it the object(s) that would display on
each page. For example, you can use it to display the date the report is
being printed.

Practical
Learning: Using the Page Header of a Report

To change the view of the report, right-click its title bar and
click Design View

Notice that the report is equipped with a Page Header and Page
Footer sections.On the Ribbon, click Design if necessary.From
the Controls section, click Label and click under the Page Header bar
in the left section (no precision necessary)

Type College Park Auto Repair and press Enter

The Detail Section

Like a form, to show the sections of a report, it must
be opened in Design View. Like a form, the most fundamental part of a
report is the Detail section, which holds the most controls of a report.
In fact, a report can have only that section. If you create a report using
one of the options from the Reports section of the Create tab of the
Ribbon, the report would come equipped with various sections. To have only
the Detail section, you can right-click the report and click the option of
those sections to remove them. You may end up with only the Detail
section:

You can then equip it with the desired controls.

The Size of a Report

Like a form, a report has a size, which is the
combination of its width and its height. When it comes to the height, each
section has and controls its own vertical measure. As done for a form, to
specify the height of a section:

You can drag up or down the bottom border of the bar of the next
section

You can access the Property Sheet of that section and change the
value of the Height property

As seen for a form, the height that a report displays
in Design View is the total height of its sections.

When it comes to the width of a report, all sections
use the same measure. The width that a report shows in Design View is the
common width of its sections. Therefore, to specify the width of a report:

You can drag left or right the right border of any section

You can access the Property Sheet of the form and change the value
of the Width property

To change both the height and the width of the
report:

You can drag left, up, right, or down the bottom-right corner of
the lowest section

You can access the Property Sheet of the report then change the
values of both the Height and the Width fields

Practical
Learning: Using the Detail Section of a Report

Double-click the button at the intersection of the rulers
to access the Property Sheet

In the Property Sheet, click the Data tab, click Control Source,
type r and press Enter to select RepairOrders

Design the report as follows:

Save the report

Right-click its title bar and click Print Preview

Close the report

The Report Header and the Report Footer

As mentioned already, the report is the primary object
used to print the data of a database. You may have created a database that
represents many objects sold in a store or you could have created a
database for a list of people such as the students of a high school. In
these cases, you may want to create a report that shows the list. To print
a realistic book, a magazine, or a brochure, you would want to have a
front cover and a back page.

To support the cover and the back page, the report can
be equipped with two other sections: The Report Header and the Report
Footer sections:

If you create a report using either the Report or the
Report Wizard options of the Reports section of the Ribbon, the report
would be equipped with a Report Header and a Report Footer sections. If
you have a report that doesn't have these sections and you want to add
them, right-click the report and click Report Header/Footer.

As seen in the above screenshot, you can have a report
that has a Report Header and a Report Footer sections without the Page
Header and the Page Footer sections. If you have a Page Header and the
Page Footer sections but don't want to show them on a printed paper, you
can completely reduce their heights:

Otherwise, if you are creating a book or brochure that
would represent a list of various items, you should equip it with all
these five sections.

When to Display a Section

By default, after adding a section to a report, the
section would show in Design View and its contents would appear in the
other views. If you want, you can hide the section in either the Design
View or the other views. This characteristic is controlled by the
Display When enumerated property. To apply it, display the report in
Design View and access the Property Sheet of the section on which you want
to control this characteristic. Click either the Format or the All tab.

The Display When property has three options:

Always: This is the default value of the property. It
indicates that the section will display in Design View and its
contents would appear in all views

Print Only: The section will appear in Design View and
Print Preview only, not in Report View or Layout View

Report View

Print Preview

Screen Only: The section will appear in Design View, in
Report View, and in Layout View, but not in Print Preview

Printing a Report

Introduction

After creating a report, you have many options to print
it. The fastest option consists of sending the report directly to the
printer. To do this:

In the Navigation Pane, right-click the report and click Print...

Click File and click Print. This would display a window with three
options:

To send the document directly to the printer, click
Quick Print.

Practical
Learning: Printing the Records

In the Navifation Pane, under Forms, right-click RepairOrders and
click Design View

In the Controls section of the Ribbon, click the More button
.
Make sure the Control Wizard button is on
.
If not, click it.In the Controls section of the Ribbon, click the
Button
and click under the Form Footer bar on the left side of the Close button

In the first page of the wizard, in the left list, click Report
Operations

In the right list, click Print Report

Click Next

In the second page of the wizard, make sure the RepairOrders report
is selected and click Next

Click Print Record and change it to Print all Records

Click Next

Change the name of the button to cmdPrintAllRecords

Click Finish

Right-click the title bar of the form and click Form View

Click the New Record button

Create the following record:

Click the Print all Records button

If you have a printer (or your computer is connected to a printer),
click Print.If you don't have access to a printer, click Cancel

Right-click the title bar of the form and click Design View

The Print Dialog Box

The Print dialog box is the most regular object used to
send a document to the printer. To display it:

Click File and click Print. In the window that appears, click Print

Use the Print Preview:

In the Navigation Pane, right-click a report and click Print
Preview

In the Navigation Pane, double-click a report to open it.
Right-click the title bar or the tab of the report and click Print
Preview

In the Print section, click the Print button

If a report contains many records:

To print all of them, in the Print dialog box, accept or click the
All button

To print a specific record, click the From text box and type number
of the record

To print a range of records, click the From box, type the starting
range. Click the To text box and type the end number of the range

Printing a Specific Record

In a transaction-based application, a user usually wants
to print the record he or she is viewing from a form. You can easily do this
using a macro. When creating the macro, you have to specify the condition by
which the record would be selected.

To proceed, start a normal macro:

In the Add New Action combo box, select Open Report

In the Action Catalog window, expand Actions and expand Database
Objects. Drag OpenReport and drop in the left window

You must specify the name of the report in the Report
Name combo box. To create the condition that specifies how to locate the
record to print, you can manually write an expession or use the Expression
Builder to create it.

Practical
Learning: Printing a Record

In the Controls section of the Ribbon, click the Button
.
If the wizard comes up, click Cancel

In the Property Sheet, click All and change the following
characteristics for the buttonName: cmdPrintInvoice
Caption: Print Invoice

Click the Event tab

Click On Click, then click its ellipsis button

In the Choose Builder dialog box, click Macro Builder and click OK

Click the arrow of the Add New Action combo box and select
OpenReport

Click the arrow of the Report Name combo box and select RepairOrders

Click the arrow of the View combo box and select PrintPreview

In the Where Condition text box, type ="[AutoRepairID] = " &
[AutoRepairID] (this expression means "Find the record where
the AutoRepairID (on the report) is equal to the current AutoRepairID
(on this form")

On the Ribbon, click the Close button

When asked whether you want to save the macro, click Yes window

Right-click the title bar of the form and click Form View

Click the Close button to close the form

When asked whether you want to save, click Yes

In the Navigation Pane, under Forms, double-click RepairOrders

Navigate to the second record

Click the Print Invoice

If you have a printer (or your computer is connected to a printer),
on the Ribbon, click Print. On the Print dialog box, click Print.If
you don't have access to a printer, click Cancel

Click the Close button to close the form

Lesson Summary

MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Access 2007 Topics

C6

Create reports

Exercises

Yugo National Bank

Open the Yugo National Bank1 database

Create a (columnar) report for the Employees table. Save it as
Employees and design it as you see fit

Create a (columnar) report for the Customers table. Save it as
Customers and design it as you see fit

Watts A Loan

Open the Watts A Loan1 database

Create a (columnar) report for the Employees table. Save it as
Employees and design it as you see fit

Create a (columnar) report for the Customers table. Save it as
Customers and design it as you see fit